Mr. Niall Cody:

We have the highest rates of excise duty on cigarettes and tobacco so we have always been a target for smuggling. The Deputy is right. It is a balance between health requirements and lowering the level of cigarettes where prices go up budget on budget. There were significant seizures in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, we seized 48.2 million cigarettes with a value of €32.8 million. while up to the end of October 2021, we had seized 55.9 million cigarettes with a value of €40 million. Regarding the level of tobacco seizures involving roll-your-own and, increasingly over the past number of years, loose-leaf tobacco, there is evidence that illicit cigarette manufacturing is taking place on the island. We have detected cigarette manufacturing facilities and I spoke to this committee a couple of years ago about the large seizure at a factory in County Louth. There were tobacco seizures to the end of October 2021 to the value of €23.1 million, which is by far the highest figure for roll-your-own tobacco we have ever had.

We take cigarette smuggling very seriously. It involves organised criminal gangs. The lockdown has had an impact on the legal market obviously because people can buy duty-free cigarettes depending on where they are coming from and if they go to Spain, cigarettes are cheaper there and they can bring them back legally. Every year, in conjunction with the tobacco regulator, we carry out a survey of illegal cigarette smuggling. The market for illegal cigarettes runs at around 15%. It fluctuates between 12% and 15% of the market. The Deputy is right. The health dimension is not my area but, clearly, there are strong health considerations in the level of legal-----